In light of the recent controversy over CAFE I thought it would be useful to repost this speech given at a gay conference in 1976. What's so remarkable about this is that the criticism closely mirrors MRA criticism of modern feminism. In fact, the more I read about feminism the more I see that the problems we associate with the third wave were present at the very beginning.

http://paganpressbooks.com/jpl/DTF.HTM

Some excerpts:

Unfortunately, some very serious problems have arisen. Self-proclaimed feminists have acted in ways that were harmful to both gay liberation and women's liberation, and reactionary ideas have been advanced under the banner of feminism. I do not say these things were characteristic of the women's movement as a whole; rather, they can be attributed to a small, but highly publicized, minority.

Although criticism of male homosexuality and gay liberation has issued freely from the feminist camp, there has been almost no reciprocal criticism from gay men, not even in self defence. It has become almost taboo to criticize anyone who identifies herself as a “feminist”. [1]

Why have feminists enjoyed this virtual immunity from criticism? For a number of reasons: Because most gay men really do support the women's movement, and are therefore hesitant to attack a women's liberationist. Because of a mood of guilt. Because feminists have so often demanded that things they disagree with be censored, and have so often gotten their way, that some men frankly are afraid of them. There is also an element of traditional male gallantry. And finally, there is a particular ideology which justifies the privileged status that feminists enjoy within the Gay Academic Union and other gay groups. [1]

According to this ideology, the most basic division in society is not between class and class, but between male and female; distinctions according to gender are seen as far more important than distinctions based on wealth and power. According to this ideology, there is a hierarchy of oppression, with the oppression of women being the worst of all. It is an oppression so profound, so mysterious, and so ineffable, that it cannot even be described in concrete terms, as might other, lesser forms of oppression. [1]

Gay men still enjoy a “male privilege” because, according to a central dictum of radical feminism: ALL MEN BENEFIT FROM THE OPPRESSION OF ALL WOMEN. So it would seem that gay men are not really so badly off, and perhaps it would be better if they did not devote their energies to repealing sodomy statutes and fighting discrimination, because these goals if realized would simply give them equality with straight men, thus objectively increasing the oppression of women. Instead, gay men should spend their time “dealing with their sexism”, which they acquired from having been born male, and in learning how to “give up their male privilege”.

According to this ideology, the best things gay men can do is to act as a “men's auxiliary” for women's liberation, taking their cues from feminists. And since men are the enemy, gay men should be willing to enlist as agents in the fight against males and against maleness. [1]

At the first gay conference at Rutgers in 1970, the major panel on the last day was disrupted by a group of women who demanded that all proceedings come to a halt. They charged that the panel was “elitist” and “sexist” (although half of the panelists were women); their main ostensible grievance was that on a table in the hall, provided for leaflets and free literature, were copies of Gay newspaper, in which they had found a reproduction of a beautiful, lush, reclining female nude, painted in the style of classic romanticism. This, they charged, was designed to titillate men, and was degrading to women. Overlooked was the fact that the picture illustrated an article written by a lesbian, and that it was unlikely the editors of Gay had intended to convert their male readers to heterosexuality. [1]

A certain pattern emerges. The people in power do not like movements for social change. When such movements are in their infancy, they will try to destroy or divert them. When movements have grown large and viable, then they will try to render them innocuous through co-optation. [1]

This kind of censorship — the censorship of ideas — is offensive to every person of integrity. If we are opposed to someone's ideas, then if anything we should wish to draw him into debate, so we can counter his ideas with our own — assuming we have something to say. This is known as dialogue, and it is through dialogue that truth emerges. [1]

This year in the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee, a few women (speaking for all women) laid down a series of demands. First, women would march at the head of the parade, to offset what they called “lesbian invisibility”. Second, half of the marshals and speakers would have to be women (actually, this had always been the case). Third, all floats and speakers would have to be approved by a committee, which would censor anything it found guilty of “sexism”, “racism”, “classism” (whatever that is), and perhaps some other “ism”. The main fear of these women was that female impersonators would be allowed, either on floats or as speakers. [1]

To continue the story of this year's Christopher Street Liberation Day: every one of the women's demands was agreed to. Women were at the head of the Gay Pride march, and women with bullhorns cleared the area of male interlopers. In this contingent, two women marched with a banner proclaiming: “Cocksucking Causes Cancer!” Despite the vaunted concern with censoring “sexism”, apparently none of the other women in the contingent suggested to these sisters that they were marching in the wrong parade.

The phrase, “cocksucking causes cancer”, is from a poem entitled “Cut the cock”, which appeared in the quarterly journal, Dyke (“To be sold to and shared by women only!”). Here are some lines from “Cut the Cock”:

Cocksucking can cause cancer cockclimbers better watch their step on the ladder to suck-cess-pool cause the cockclock is running out of ticktock and when the woman revolution comes there ain't gonna be no pawn shop where an old cocksucker can hock a cock...

No comment on the poem, but I do find it reprehensible that the gay press has hidden its head in the sand and pretended that the poem never was published. [1]

What feminist writers seem totally unable to comprehend is the validity of all-male attachments — the great desire and need men have for the companionship, friendship, and love of other men. The feminists cannot see male fellowship as a positive thing; to them it can only be misogyny, a rejection and exclusion of women, a form of segregation. [1]

In Millett's world, men do not really like each other; it is only the sexual politics of the patriarchy that makes them spend so much time together.

*Millett extends the term, “men's house culture”, * referring to an institution in some primitive societies, to apply to all men's associations. She tosses in the Nazis, underworld thugs, Norman Mailer's U.S. Army, and some primitive sadism, in such a way as to imply that all men's groups are somehow fascistic in character. [1]

Actually, some of the very worst bigotry has come from men claiming to represent feminism. In this camp are the handful of men who call themselves “effeminists” and publish the expensively produced and synthetically pathological magazine, Double-F. Another male feminist is John Stoltenberg, whose article, “Toward Gender Justice”, appeared in WIN magazine (20 March 1975). Stoltenberg attacks all of the goals of the gay liberation movement, claiming that if realized they would only give gay men equality with straight men; he puts forward the propositions that males concerned with “gender justice” should embrace “a total repudiation of masculinity” (including a repudiation of erections and pelvic thrusts during sex), and a total repudiation of male relationships. Stoltenberg posits a “patriarchal taboo against unbonding”, which is insidiously counter to the truth: what is tabooed in our culture is precisely the desublimation of the male bond; the taboo is on fully realizing eros between males.

Stoltenberg deserves only our contempt when he dismisses the yearning men have for male affection by writing: “...all he was ever programmed to long for in relationship with men connects at its center to a process that keeps women oppressed.” [1]

I think the women should take a hard and critical look at the extreme feminist wing of their movement; parts of it have become the worst enemy of women's liberation. I think women should fight for full economic, political, and sexual equality with men, and that they should take action against anti-woman bigotry. There is a time to demonstrate, to picket, to march; there is a time to raise hell — but prudery, intolerance, and censorship have no place in any progressive movement.

The rest of my conclusion I address to the men:

Brothers: We have work to do for our own liberation, and we must not be diverted from the struggle.

We must not let our historic oppression be trivialized. We were stoned to death by the Jews; put to the sword, castrated, and tortured by the Christians; burned at the stake by the Inquisition. We were the men with the pink triangle. We are the ones being persecuted right now in Chile, in Argentina, in cuba, and in the United States. It is male love that has been under the most powerful taboo of all Judeo-Christian culture: an offence worse than murder, the “abominable crime”, the “unspeakable crime”, the “sin so horrible it is not to be mentioned among Christians”.

We must affirm the validity and beauty of male companionship, male friendship, and male love. We must defend our heritage. We must recognize our enemies wherever we find them. Nobody's ideas and nobody's actions should be exempted from criticism. [1]

Edit: added bold text